What about getting a second account and instead of getting a new domain...just use one of the existing SEB subdomains? It can be done, easily. You’d be in the same server environment, you would have the bandwidth of two accounts to work with (keep SEB on one and move the forums and much else to the second, for example), and it would be less than the $99 you quoted from ServerBeach.

Oh hell, I would only go with ServerBeach so I could run a game server. There are entirely too many decent hosting packages out there for much less than $99 a month that I could use for just the blogs.

If I were to stay with Blogomania I’d have to consider just bumping up to the next level of hosting as getting a second account would actually be more expensive. Bumping up to the next level would increase my monthly bandwidth to 26GB from the current 19GB, but we hit 21GB last month (and that’s not counting the first week of August as I reset the logs on the 8th) so I’m not sure how long it’d be before I’d exceed the new level.

I have no real idea of what your requirements are but you might check out 1&1 Internetservices. They have a very wide array of packages at reasonable prices.

(How appropriate....the word is ONE....)

Well, as I mentioned, I need something that offers enough bandwidth to cover our current usage and allow for some growth as last month we hit over 21GB of transfer. More elbow room would be nice as well as this current plan offers 325MB, which isn’t bad, but I’ve seen some out there that offer a full Gig.

After that the plan must offer the option for at least 2 domain names pointing to the same account, preferably without charging extra.  At least 10 subdomains as that’s what I’m currently using between all the sites I’m hosting. Last I need at least three mySQL databases. Pretty much everything else is standard on most hosts such as PHP and Perl and so on.

Looking at 1&1 it appears I’d have to go with the Developer’s package to get 3 mySQL databases and the other features I want which would run around $20 a month. Not bad and the disk and bandwidth allotments are generous, but the limit mySQL databases seems odd compared to many other services. There’s also no word on if they retain ownership over domains registered through their service or if the customer does. It is nice that they’ll pay for up to five domains hosted on the developer package for as long as you host with them, but that makes me think they’d want ownership rights.

Ack! And there’s a 100MB limit on the database size. We’re already at 32MB.

Dammit.

I was thinking along the line of one of their server packages starting at $49/month.

Hi Les!

Say, not *directly* on-topic, but why don’t you put up a donation link. Lots of us loyal reader folks would chip in a bit every now and then, I’d say. You could call it the ‘bandwidth donation button’

Ingolfson

Hi there!  Long time reader, first time commenter (to my present recollection anyway

Have you thought about setting up your own server and getting a business internet account instead of a normal one?

I’m not sure of the costs for your area, but that’s what I do. I have a second PC that used to be my development test machine, and it’s set up with the latest Mandrake linux and is on 24/7.  I have a business account with my local ISP so they remove the port blocking, and have 20 GB of bandwidth monthly (I don’t need more yet, but I could purchase a bigger package if necessary).

The upside is that you get control of everything.  You have essentially unlimited storage, as you own the hard drive(s).  You can install whatever you like, from various versions of blog software, to games, to what have you.  You can set up your own web mail server.  Adding domains and subdomains is trivial.  You aren’t limited to the amount of mySQL databases, and everything can be done right on the server so you don’t have to worry about someone snagging your password and altering things from the web admin (or you can have a web admin anyway). 

The downside is that you have to do all of the stuff yourself, but as someone who likes to build your own PCs and fiddle with different net stuff, I don’t see that as being too big a deal.  Linux isn’t hard if you have someone to help you, and you make a few attempts at it.

Another downside is that your traffic is now going through your home account, so unless you have a second line (i.e. you use cable, but the “business” line uses DSL, or a separate cable package) then you might see a degradation in performance in your home net usage.  ‘Course I’ve hosted games, a Teamspeak server, web pages, etc, all at the same time and I have yet to see any loss of performance.  You see more long-term traffic than I, but I’m sure that there are at least some points where I’m using just as much as you at any given time with all of my game hosting, so it likely wouldn’t be that big a hit for you.

Anyway, food for thought.  It’s very rewarding having your own server, and you can use it any way you like without restriction, but it is a fair bit more effort than hosting elsewhere.

Ingolfson, I’m still resistant to doing that as I honestly think it’s a bit presumptive to have my Wish List up on the blog. Bad enough I give the impression I expect everyone to buy me crap, don’t want to give the impression I expect everyone to pay for my hosting too.

Sam, I have considered that option on many occasions and I just can’t afford to do it at the moment. I know that Speak Easy.net offers DSL connections for gamers and web geeks that would probably do just fine for this sort of thing, but again they start at around $100 a month.

Someday, though, once I win the lottery I’m going to do all that stuff myself.

Les, your wish list is SO understated, that I was a regular reader of your blog for months before ever once clicking on it.

I suppose that’s true. I’ve had more than one person email me to tell me they couldn’t find the link.

Wow, 100 bucks a month?  That sounds rather excessive…

My account is only $75 a month, and that’s Canadian (so say $50 US), and that’s about $35 canadian more than the actual personal account is.

Speakeasy might be targetting gamers and tech-geeks with such a high price because we are known for spending outrageous amounts of money in support of our hobby.

My suggestion, assuming you haven’t yet done so, would be to shop around, specifically for a business-class account, and not something that is blatantly targetting gamers.  You get everything you need in a business account, and it’s likely going to be cheaper for you than speakeasy.

I’ll be heartbroken if I ever have to give up my server.  It has spoiled me

SBC offers DSL in my area for $74.95 or so a month that gives 1.5-3Mbps down and only 384Kbps up which is way more than my cable modem service which gives me 4Mbps down and 512Kbps up. Of course, I can run a server on the DSL service, but I’m not willing to pay that much more for a slower connection.

I will probably just end up going with Dreamhost’s Sweet Dreams package as it’s around $20 a month and covers all my needs:

1600MB storage and 48GB of transfer
Unlimited mySQL databases
7 Full domains and 35 subdomains

Can’t really sneeze at that.

QM, I went back to 1&1 and checked out the dedicated server packages you mentioned and I have to admit I’m impressed! The $49/month one gives a lot of bang for the buck and allows for the running of game servers too. Can’t argue with 500GB of transfer or the 40GB HD. I have no idea how much bandwidth a game server would eat up a month, but that would be more than plenty for hosting websites on.

I may have to consider that one once my income improves a bit, don’t know I could convince the wife of it right now, but....

Hmmm. Perhaps I could persuade some friends of mine to rent some space from me… Hmmm. *sounds of rampant scheming and plotting begin*

Just pull really hard for Bush to win the election and then declare SEB as a ‘church’ outreach site under the new Bush tax strategy.

Once that’s done you can move SEB into the great web hosting markets enjoyed by Falwell, Hagee, Robertson and the other great multi-millionaire con artists of our time.

I still haven’t decided on moving but thanks to Elwed’s input I’m seriously leaning toward Lunar Pages

For what it’s worth, I’m very happy with Lunarpages. I have no idea about the quality of their support staff, though, because I never need them.

The one thing I just now recall is that their PHP configuration is/was a bit odd and I needed a very ugly workaround (that shouldn’t) to get Gallery working. You may want to peruse the support forums or ask pre-sales if the apps you intend to run have any known issues.

Perhaps I could persuade some friends of mine to rent some space from me…

Hmmm....

Dedicated servers hmm? FreeVirtualServers has some around the $89 mark (100 Gb bw/1.7Ghz,256Mb RAM,30Gb HD), ServerMatrix has a nice range also starting at $89 per month (1200Gb bw/2.4Ghz,1Gb RAM,80Gb HD), and Ev1Servers has some from $99 per month...Oh - and Nocster have some at $59.95/month.

You might want to also look at VPS (Virtual Private Servers: where it looks like you have your own server, but it’s just one physical box hosting multiple customers in a virtual environment) which are now beginnging to make big inroads into the market - Ev1 did have some available for $39 for 200Gb bandwidth, 20Gb HD.

Failing all that, have a look at WebHostingTalk and you may find a host/package suitable for your requirement

Those are all a bit on the expensive side right now, but I have been hanging out at WebHostingTalk as of late while doing research.